Canning 101 – Green Tomato Curry Sauce

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosureBy Mavis Butterfield on September 24, 2012 · 27 Comments

This awesome green tomato recipe comes from my sweet friend Jane. She found it in the book Preserving for All Seasons By Anne Gordon. I LOVE curry. So when I read the ingredient list, I knew instantly I wanted to give it a try.

And holy cow, am I glad I did.

This stuff is so good, I plan on making 2 more batches of it this afternoon. Besides the fact this stuff tastes amazing, Jane suggests 2 different ways you can serve this green tomato curry sauce. Over rice, or as a side dish with chicken or fish. Personally, I’m going for the poured over rice scenario. Talk about an easy dinner. Just come home, pop some rice in the rice cooker, heat up some sauce, and viola! Dinner is served. Thanks Jane. You rock!

Bring a boiling-water canner, 3/4 full with water, to simmer. Wash jars and screw bands in hot soapy water; rinse with warm water. Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Drain well before filling.

Chop onions and then saute them in butter until translucent. Add curry powder and cook an additional 3 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, cover and simmer 30 minutes, and give it a stir occasionally. You may need to add more water {but I did not}.

Ladle immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids and screw bands on. Place jars on elevated rack in canner. Lower rack into canner. {Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add boiling water, if necessary.} Cover; bring water to gentle boil. Process 30 minutes. Remove jars and place upright on towel to cool completely. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middles of lids with finger. If lids spring back, lids are not sealed and refrigeration is necessary}. My friend Jane also says you can pressure can this for 10 minutes if you do not want to use the water bath method. It’s up to you. Yields {5} pints.

That sure looks like a lot of low acid ingredients for such a small amount of lemon juice??? And other than for foam on jam which has sooo much sugar in it, I don’t think you are suppost to use butter in a canning recipe?.?. Not trying to cause a problem, just want you to be safe, you might check the recipe with your local county extension office.

Hi Jamie, this recipe came out of a canning book, and my friend Jane makes it as well. If you would like you can pressure can it instead as I stated in the instructions. 🙂 I also use butter in my friend Jane’s tomato soup canning recipe and have never had a problem. 🙂

OMG, I love this sauce. I agree; It’s delicious on brown rice…except that I’m eating it so fast out of the jar it almost doesn’t make it to the dinner table. (It’s sort of amazing that I was able to get any of it canned with all the bites, licks and tastes.)

Mavis, I need help. I made some fried green tomatoes and loved them (as did my family), after much research I froze slices of green tomatoes so we can have more later…BIG mistake, the fried green tomatoes came out slimy as snot! is there anything I can do with them? I have 3! gallon size bags in the freezer….hubby told me to toss it but that breaks my heart.

I picked all the rest of my tomatoes today – and made a batch of this for the family to “sample” for lunch, before I started canning it. They LOVE it! There won’t be any in this batch for canning – I’ll have to make more. And, I’m going to can it in quarts – because that’s what it’ll take to feed my family. We put it over rice and some shredded chicken. We like to top our curry at the table with shredded coconut, peanuts, raisins, mandarin oranges, diced onions, bell peppers, – whatever I feel like chopping up and setting out. My kids call it “mixed up chicken.”

Mavis: I tried this and it is a little sweet for my family’s taste. Do you know if you can cut down on the brown sugar in the recipe (and/or increase the amount of curry powder?) I really want to make more, but want it more to our taste while still being a safe recipe to can.

Mavis you are an everyday word in my household. You had me hooked when I read your post about using gutters in your greenhouse. By the way they work great in mine 🙂 You have been my goto for all kinds of debates this year. When I saw this recipe I knew I would have to try it. It took me awhile, and the snow flying, to muster up the courage to make this. I was worried i wouldn’t like it and I’d still have a ton of green tomatoes and nothing to do with them. So before the snow flew today I went and picked the majority of the green tomatoes and we made three, four quart batches. plus i have more to do. I made it with chicken on white rice and fell in love. This sauce is the best thing I have made with any of our tomatoes. Thank You so much for sharing. Peace out Girl Scout

This is my first time posting on your blog. Since I just finished a meal of this stuff I needed to let you know how much I love it. This is 1 of the best recipes around and it’s so fast to throw together with minimum prep. You are right. You need to make several batches of this stuff. It is so versatile. I use a jar as a base sauce then add whatever I feel like….eggplant + pumpkin, chickpeas + cauliflower, chicken , potatoes+ peas, tofu + mango. Sometimes I add coconut milk too.
I try to grow a lot of my food + preserve it by canning, freezing + dehydration so this recipe helps me to make an almost instant curry anytime.
Re Jamie ‘s post above…This recipe is from a published book but I understand your concern about the butter. I personally used only 1 T coconut oil and prefer not to use fats in water bath canning. I found 1/4 cup butter to be too much for my tastes. If the onions are slowly cooked on low heat first then there should be almost no need of any fats. Green tomatoes are high acid ( low pH) so they don’t require much lemon. The onions are low acid but there’s only 2. The taste of lemon is not noticeable so you could add more if you felt a need to for safety’s sake. With those small changes I hope you are encouraged to try this.

I use a bit of coconut oil ( only 1T for a single batch) with a splash of balsamic vinegar to slowly simmer the onions on low heat. I also found it too sweet for my tastes so I use only half the sugar. I also double the lemon juice & add a bit of citric acid just to be on the safe side. I found these changes to still be very tasty & I feel safer about the acid levels for processing in the water bath.

Did this 2 weeks ago. trusted you on this so I did 24 500ml jars since this year I got soooo much tomatoes. tasted it last night on fish and rice and the verdict of the fmaily was???? WOOOOWW!!!!! A keeper. Thank you 😉

Just put up a batch, but instead of 1 cup of water I added a can of coconut milk, extra turmeric and some fenugreek. Tastes great, I’m glad to have found this recipe, I never would have thought of curry for the green tomatoes.

just found this and it looks interesting. I was wondering how much the recipe makes because I would like to freeze it, but due to limited freezer space, I need to make sure I have room before making because I just dont trust canning with butter no matter where the recipe originates from.